BRAD AND KYLE - WHAT CAN YOU SAY?

Just as the Monster Energy Cup Series playoff was getting underway last week, Brad Keselowski fired another shot at Toyota, claiming they had an unfair advantage. In response, Kyle Busch dropped an "F-bomb" and the war of words was really on.

"He's (Keselowski) an idiot, we all know that," Busch declared. "The biggest thing is that you don't hear anyone else complaining like he is - it's just one guy."

That may be true, but Keselowski claims he's an army of one. "I hate to try to speak for everybody else and I think there are a lot of people that cheer me on behind the scenes and support me when I get over the handlebars a little with things I say or don't say in front of a microphone."

"I like my position at Team Penske and feel pretty secure in driving there for a long, long time. I am not looking over my shoulder worrying about getting a ride with another manufacturer one day and that gives me some privileges that maybe some other guys don't have."

Okay, so what do the facts say? Ford won five of the opening 10 races this season. It appeared to me they had a few extra ponies under the hood and seemed to be pulling everyone down the straightaways. However, the boys with the "blue oval" are winless in the last ten in which Toyota has been to victory lane seven times and Chevrolet has grabbed three checkered flags.

Clearly Toyota has the upper hand right now while Keselowski and company and Chevrolet have clearly fallen behind. Is that unfair, though, or just part of the natural ebb and flow because no one can stay on top of this sport for a very long period of time? The people on the other teams work too hard and are too smart for anyone to keep an advantage. That's a point Kyle wanted to push. "The guys at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) have been doing an amazing job and all the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing have been making some great race cars."

"You'd like to be doing your talking on the race track and they (Penske-Keselowski) were earlier in the year. We kept our head down went to work and did our job to make our stuff faster. Now, he's the opposite."

"Let's see what their answer is when the rulebooks change at the end of the year," countered Keselowski. "It's frustrating. Nobody likes to be at the bottom. We aren't at the bottom, but we are a long way from the top and we know that we have to find another gear."

"There are natural cycles where cars, teams, manufacturers go up and down. At the start of the year we were at the top of the cycle and at this moment we are not where we need to be. With respect to that, when we were at the top it seemed like there were a lot of rules changes to slow us down. Now you have cars that are so much faster than the field and there's complete inaction."

Busch believes Keselowski should shut up and quit looking for NASCAR to ride to his rescue. "If you ask Brad he can fix the world's problems, that's all there is to it and he thinks somehow big brother is going to come up and help him."

No doubt there is a personal animosity between these two that has spilled out on the track and has gotten revved up in the land of Twitter. "I guess somebody needs to take that off my phone," said Busch. "Past that, I'm way behind in payback. Just "FYI", he's way ahead so if anybody is going to be getting it, it's going to be him."

Leave it to his teammate Denny Hamlin, however, to get the last laugh. "I like to know what Toyota is paying Brad because he is their best spokesman," he joked. "If you're shopping for a midsize sedan, get the unfair advantage - get a Toyota."